Victims of Montana asbestos pollution that killed hundreds take Warren Buffett's railroad to court (msn.com)
Can a railroad refuse to haul cargo if the cargo is deemed to be safe to haul by the Federal government if the railroad hauls that cargo within guidelines issued by the Feds at the time? I don't know the answer to either question but honestly I can't see the railroad at fault here either. I think it is an innocent party.
I feel bad for the guy but his lawyers aim is off in my opinion.
CMStPnPCan a railroad refuse to haul cargo if the cargo is deemed to be safe to haul by the Federal government if the railroad hauls that cargo within guidelines issued by the Feds at the time? I don't know the answer to either question but honestly I can't see the railroad at fault here either. I think it is an innocent party. I feel bad for the guy but his lawyers aim is off in my opinion.
Who was the miner, manufacturer, shipper of vermiculite? Whoever that party is, to my mind is the one on the hook. Railroads are just carriers of the product.
I fully expect the original vermiculite company no longer exists and BNSF is the deepest pocket still left that has any association with the product.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Note: Accorduing to the television's 'lawyer advertisements'; Someyears back there was a 'juducial settlement', it amounted to a sume in the vicinity of $30 Billion (?) Such an amount is bound to have the Legal Community jerking and salivating.
Back in High School, i worked on a Zonolite roofing crew, our product was a vermiculite product, that was mfg by., IIRC, Johns-Mandeville(?)
BaltACD I fully expect the original vermiculite company no longer exists and BNSF is the deepest pocket still left that has any association with the product.
Born and raised in Libby during those days, dad worked at the mine, to tell you tyhe truth its a coin toss if you have thickened lung linings, or flat out pass away from it. WR Grace also loaded and stored the vermiculite in the GN/BN yard in Libby, they had a loading facility there before the biult on across the river from the mine. The old loading facility was parked between the GN yard and the Little League baseball fields, every kid from the 50s to the early 90's playing baseball there, and playing on the dirt piles at the facility, including me. As much exposure I've had to it means I should be dead, but I'm not, have a touch of asthma, as do most people from there. Its been "cleaned" or left alone in a "do not disturb" state. Dad died at 84, but he had co-workers that were passing away long before. Like I said, its a crap shoot on how it affects you.
This gentleman and his lawyers are chasing a ship thats long since sailed.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Geared SteamBorn and raised in Libby during those days, dad worked at the mine, to tell you tyhe truth its a coin toss if you have thickened lung linings, or flat out pass away from it. WR Grace also loaded and stored the vermiculite in the GN/BN yard in Libby, they had a loading facility there before the biult on across the river from the mine. The old loading facility was parked between the GN yard and the Little League baseball fields, every kid from the 50s to the early 90's playing baseball there, and playing on the dirt piles at the facility, including me. As much exposure I've had to it means I should be dead, but I'm not, have a touch of asthma, as do most people from there. Its been "cleaned" or left alone in a "do not disturb" state. Dad died at 84, but he had co-workers that were passing away long before. Like I said, its a crap shoot on how it affects you. This gentleman and his lawyers are chasing a ship thats long since sailed.
All life is a crap shoot - a lot is dependent on 'luck of the draw' as well as the choices individuals make as their lives progress.
Mom had Rheumatic Fever as a child and with her damaged heart had a heart attack at age 58, being a life long smoker didn't help.
Dad was also a life long smoker and could hit adult beverages a little too hard from time to time - he managed to 'politic' his way into a full disability pension when the company was making a management force reduction - he survived my mother by 10 years and had about 7 years of retirement before COPD ended his life.
So far I've made some mistakes, a smoker until I quit in 1985. Survived Colon Cancer in 1996 and diagnosis of bladder and kidney cancer in 2021. So now I am down to one kidney with the lesions on the bladder being excised. Next B day will be 78. Luck of the draw, my paternal grandfather made it to 98.
Many of the bad effects of stuff weren't known decades ago. What's scary is that some want to neuter OSHA and the EPA so that the "good ole days" will come back. A few years ago I drove through the area where KS, AR, OK and MO meet. There are abandoned towns there because of lead contamination. Google Eagle-Picher Mining.
BaltACD Luck of the draw, my paternal grandfather made it to 98.
My mother and her sisters made it into their 90's. My father died at 43 of heart disease (two packs of Pall Malls a day didn't help). His father died at 35, likely of heart disease. Dad's brother and sister both made it into their 80's.
I'm 73 with no significant health issues (well, diabetes, but meds handle that). Thank goodness.
Forty years in EMS has shown me people who smoked two packs a day until they died of old age. And people who never smoked a day in their life who died at fifty, of lung disease.
So many variables.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
And nowadays, in and around Galena,Ks. area the winds still bloiw the dust off of the lead containing, mine-waste hills, all across the landscape....
Plus, After a number of years spent at Camp Lejeune, NC.; I find myself on their lists, in their contaminated water issues (?) v cc Might just be that post-natal, abortion issues, may be the least of out problems?
A number of years ago while having a meal in the dining car of one of Amtrak's ld trains my table mate and I were introducing ourselves and got into age and what work we had done. He looked about 70 or so and he responded that he was 85 and when answering what he did for work said he built asbestos brake shoes for 40 years and had no problems. Life is indeed a crap shoot.
A major consideration is going to hinge on how the judge rules on the common-carrier obligation.
There was a precedent a couple of decades ago at a battery plant, where the management tried to ban or restrict employment of women who might become pregnant. They were informed not only that they could not discriminate on that basis, but would remain fully liable for any perceived fetal damage or birth defects from environmental exposure. When the battery company complained about the risk, they were told to fix their standards to conform with 'minimal exposure'.
But no government compelled them to continue making batteries whether at a loss or not, or dangerously or not.
The end run around this is to try to establish 'online warehousing' as somehow not included under the common-carrier mandate, but something the railroad engaged in for its own benefit. Or to claim the railroad was not negligent in keeping their yard areas policed from spillage.
The funny, and slightly unnerving, thing is that 'vermiculite' was something school kids used to commonly encounter when gardening or growing plants from seed -- it was advertised as an ideal medium for that, lightweight and easy to use. (Of course I still think of talcum powder as something in use in every bathroom every day across America, too...)
tree68Forty years in EMS has shown me people who smoked two packs a day until they died of old age. And people who never smoked a day in their life who died at fifty, of lung disease.
That reminds me of something my father (who didn't smoke) told me. He'd met a thoracic surgeon at a party held at a mutual friend's house. When Dad saw the surgeon lighting up a cigarette he couldn't help but ask:
"You're a surgeon and you smoke? Aren't you worried about lung cancer?"
He replied "No. I'll tell you something, I cut just as many as don't smoke as do. Don't ask me the reason why that is, I have no answer."
Luck of the draw indeed.
Flintlock76 tree68 Forty years in EMS has shown me people who smoked two packs a day until they died of old age. And people who never smoked a day in their life who died at fifty, of lung disease. That reminds me of something my father (who didn't smoke) told me. He'd met a thoracic surgeon at a party held at a mutual friend's house. When Dad saw the surgeon lighting up a cigarette he couldn't help but ask: "You're a surgeon and you smoke? Aren't you worried about lung cancer?" He replied "No. I'll tell you something, I cut just as many as don't smoke as do. Don't ask me the reason why that is, I have no answer." Luck of the draw indeed.
tree68 Forty years in EMS has shown me people who smoked two packs a day until they died of old age. And people who never smoked a day in their life who died at fifty, of lung disease.
Testimony in court
BNSF Railway says it didn't know about asbestos that's killed hundreds in Montana town (msn.com)
ASARCO had a lead smelter in Omaha that the Union Pacific served for nearly 100 years. Residents of the surrounding neihborhoods sued multiple parties including the Union Pacific.
I seem to recall having bought some bags of Vermiculite to work into the heavy clay that my yard had so I could have a small garden to grow vegitables, giving the plants an opportunity to develop a root structure.
Vermiculite was used pretty extensively, in the 1950's &60;s; as an addqtive for concete mixes. It created a light-0weight,flowable, product, that could be pummed over some distances, or heights. It was used in sub-flooring, and roofing applications.
In my area,the Mid-South, it was delivered by rail box cars, and trucks, in large paper bags. There were no warnings, as I remember; it was not a;';clean' product to use and handle.
BaltACD I seem to recall having bought some bags of Vermiculite to work into the heavy clay that my yard had so I could have a small garden to grow vegetables, giving the plants an opportunity to develop a root structure.
I seem to recall having bought some bags of Vermiculite to work into the heavy clay that my yard had so I could have a small garden to grow vegetables, giving the plants an opportunity to develop a root structure.
I remember the ex using it when potting plants.
The little bit of asbestos in vermiculite pales in comparison to being up to my elbows in asbestos repacking a retort when I was in USAF... No problems so far some 50 years later.
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